Two lion cubs were born at the Racine Zoo on March 16.
The Transvaal cubs – one male and one female -- are the second litter born to Elsa and Aslan. The cubs weigh approximately 11 pounds each. Both mother and cubs are doing very well, hitting all health and developmental benchmarks.
Theresa Donarski, the zoo's animal care supervisor, said, “We knew there was a high likelihood that Elsa would give birth again. She and Aslan proved to be great parents to the four cubs born a few years ago. Elsa is definitely more comfortable this time, though. She will leave the cubs in their den and go outside for short stretches, allowing us to easily access the cubs for health screenings.”
The cubs are in quarantine and not yet on exhibit due to the process of acclimating them to their family and environment. Quarantine ends on Thursday, May 27 when they go on exhibit in the Vanishing Kingdom historic main building during a Members Appreciation event. They are scheduled for public viewing starting at 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 29. They will then be on exhibit daily from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Jay Christie, president of the zoo, said, "We’ve had a tough time keeping their births quiet, but wanted to be sure they were healthy and Elsa was taking good care of them prior to sharing this exciting news." In the next few weeks, the zoo will announce details of a “Name the Cubs” contest.
Here are pictures of the cubs' parents. Dad Aslan was sunning outside this afternoon, but Mom Elsa stayed inside, looking out the window at three piles of fresh meat put there by her keeper -- but refusing to leave her cubs, despite the arrival of Channel 4's videographer.
Here's our story and picture of Elsa's last litter, which was born on Sept. 6, 2007.
Very cool!
ReplyDeleteNOw THAT put a smile on my face :) Thanks guys!!!
ReplyDeleteThey are sooo cute...too bad they won't stay that way very long.
ReplyDeleteAmen! Sad to say, in a few months, the cubs will be capable of ripping a man's face off his skull if they feel like it. To many of my poor friends, the way the rich and the upper-middle classes dote on dangerous predators and their young while neglecting the needs of low-income people is an obscenity. As long as Racine leads the state in minority infant mortality, lion cubs should be low-priority items.
ReplyDeleteAnon 9:49
ReplyDeleteAm I to assume that you make your donations to the city health department to take care of the minority infant problem and not to the zoo?
I agree the city has many problems. However, the zoo did not create them. If anything, the zoo allows distractions for working families - families like mine - who between me and my wife have 2 full-time jobs and 2 part-time jobs. Just to keep our home. The zoo gives us a chance to spend time together and watch our kids get excited. It is inexpensive, local, and educational.
As far as the problems the city has, some of them the city has brought on and some the residents have brought on.
5:47 Don't listen to Mr. Angry - he complains about everything and does nothing to improve things in Racine. It's the typical position - it's always someone else's fault.
ReplyDeleteAdorable! Kind of sad that they will grow up in a zoo, but as long as they are well cared for, this is happy news. I will have to go see them at the end of May.
ReplyDeleteWe should be so proud of our Zoo!
ReplyDeleteThey are dedicated to bring first class affordable entertainment to Racine.
A wonderful family day trip and educational too!
A couple of questions come to mind:
ReplyDeleteWhere was Aslan Wednesday evening/Thursday morning?
Were any pheasant feathers found in the den?
Gotta teach those cubs to hunt. Just wondering.
Caged wild animals break my heart.
ReplyDeleteAs long as our rank-and-file residents are trapped in poverty, we don't need a zoo. I know senior citizens who are mad as hell about paying property taxes to support animals while people go without the basics in this corrupt little company town. If the Waxtrash and their Ivy League elitists want a zoo here, let them finance their folly.
ReplyDeleteWhy are we celebrating the arrival of lion cubs? Wake up. folks--lions are predators which kill and devour OUR species. If all lions were to become extinct, I wouldn't miss them. Neither would the inhabitants of the Third World countries where lions attack useful animals (e.g. livestock) and PEOPLE.
ReplyDeleteHow is it that the general public can be so two sided when it comes to animals. I love animals and feel sick when I see abuse or neglect. Why do people own animals and then don't take care of them? Those cubs are soooo cute. That is nature in it's finest.Our zoo is one of the great things about Racine. It's more than just a chicken and a cow. I'm going to name those cubs. Just you wait and see!
ReplyDeleteAlthough the lion cubs are cute, they'll soon morph into mayhem, maiming and murder machines. (There's a reason for the Kenyan Masai tribe's aversion to lions. Until our conservationists meddled in their affairs, the Masai warriors killed lions because the beasts injured their people and their cattle.) In this country, we foolishly dote on critters while human beings suffer. Then we export our animal-worship cult to Third World nations and impose it on the inhabitants in the name of conservation. Actually, the real agenda is money for the tourism industry and animate eye candy for richie-poos on safari to photograph.
ReplyDeleteConsidering our current depression, we don't need a zoo in Racine. (None of the above is an attack on Mr. Christie and his helpers. I wish them great jobs at world-class institutions on the coasts. In fact, Mr. Christie is good enough to have his own TV program--Jungle Jaunts with Jay. The problem is not with the personnel. Rather, the location--a dying Rustbelt burg--is the wrong place for Mr. Christies, his staff and ANY zoo.)
ReplyDeletePlease excuse the incorrect spelling of Mr. Chirstie's name in the last sentence. Thank you very much!
ReplyDeleteI have elderly neighbors who are ticked off at being taxed to feed giraffes. They don't need to support lion cubs, representatives of a predatory species which regards people as yummy snacks.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I've heard, certain corporate crime families are responsible for inflicting the zoo and other elitist nonsense on the rest of us. If the cash-cadgers want their menagerie, they--not senior citizens and other low-income residents--should pay for it.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that poverty has forced the less-fortunate among us to turn the zoo's golden pheasants into food should teach us that moribund blue-collar towns shouldn't be in the bird-and-beast racket. Racine cannot afford (and doesn't need) a zoo.
ReplyDeleteAmen! Besides, when you research the history of zoos, you'll learn that they started out as royal menageries full of big cats and other predators symbolizing the elite's power to exploit the common man. If the truth were told, we don't need zoos and their carnivorous inmates.
ReplyDeleteAs long as babies die and paupers cry, doting on lion cubs is an obscenity.
ReplyDeleteIn a sane world, that zoo would never have been founded and inflicted on the people of Racine. Lord willing, the day will arrive when it ceases to exist and some other community may shoulder the burden represented by those much-vaunted lions and their maintenance. In the meantime--and it IS a MEAN TIME for most of us--we should be supporting babies and other vulnerable members of our own species instead of pampering pricey predators.
ReplyDeleteThank goodness, my Father wouldn't allow copies of "Born Free" and "Living Free" to enter our home. Contrary to conservationists' propaganda, lions aren't cute and cuddly critters. Along with other dangerous predators, lions are loathed by the Sub-Saharan African farmers and cattlemen whose livestock they destroy and whose FAMILIES THEY ATTACK. Until recent times, Masai men were expected to kill lions as proof that they were ready to protect and provide for a family as full-fledged adults. However, due to pressure from our economic elite, sundry conservation-oriented groups and the tourism industry, lions literally get away with murder.
ReplyDeleteIn my book, preserving lions and supporting them while poor children go without health care is criminal.
ReplyDeleteWhen the older lions die - we'll feed them to those you say are deprived. Get a grip and lighten up. You naysayers are so depressing. There is NEVER one positive statement from you.
ReplyDeleteDear 4/26/2010 10:05 AM, We're not naysayers. Rather, we're realists who've been forced by poverty to see this filthy system as it actually is. Until our government builds a socio-economic safety net for all our citizens, we shouldn't be supporting big cats and their young.
ReplyDeleteBy and large, zoos are pricey status symbols (and, occasionally, tax shelters) for the privileged class. If the Waxies want a municipal menagerie, they can jolly well cut the checks to maintain and sustain it.
ReplyDeleteDear 4/24/2010 1:26 PM, There's no such thing as "nature at its finest." In case you haven't been required to struggle against natural forces, let me remind you that nature is man's enemy. If you don't believe me, ask any working Joe who's got to dig ditches for a living. Check with any farmer whose useful animals have been attacked by predators (e.g. coyotes of wildcats). Our nature cult--a sick legacy left to us by the Romantic poets and Transcendentalist philosophers--has got to go a.s.a.p.
ReplyDeletePlease accept my apology for the typo in the penultimate line. "Coyotes of wildcats" should read "coyotes or wildcats." Corrections aside, our American love affair with nature is revolting to anyone who's had to perform hard labor during bad weather or needed to shell out serious cash to repair a roof ruined by squirrels and other vermin. The Romantic bards, the Transcendentalist trashrats (Emerson and his pals) as well as Frank Lloyd Wright did us no favor by promoting their exalted view of nature.
ReplyDeleteLions have their place, but it isn't in economically-challenged Racine.
ReplyDeleteIf someone can tell us how the citizens of our community could terminate the zoo, my neighbors and I would be extremely grateful.
ReplyDeleteIdiots - more government has seen its day through Obama - wait until November when we begin to kick government out of our personal lives. Next will be to see Obama go. The only way he has a chance of winning is passing a 30M person amnesty for illegal aliens - and you know damn well that is his plan. But back to the lions - they are great and it is great to see the zoo constantly improving itself.
ReplyDeleteDear 4/27/2010 8:04 AM, Calling people idiots doesn't solve this toadish town's problems. Taking the damned zoo off the property taxpayers' backs just may do something constructive. If the rich and their upper-middle class retainers are so keen on the zoo, let them finance it. Most rank-and-file residents aren't that interested in it and wouldn't miss the zoo if it were to close.
ReplyDeleteIf the wealthy like the zoo so much, they ought to relocate it in Lighthouse Loot Lord Land and support it with their spare change. Those of us who can barely survive shouldn't have to provide lions with a cushy lifestyle.
ReplyDeleteLosers - how do you know the demographics of those using the zoo. You are idiots because you do not and cannot prove who uses it therefore your comments are of no value.
ReplyDeleteAbusive language won't change anyone's opinion anent the zoo. One thing I do know--during all the decades it's been here leeching off the taxpayers, members of my family have visited it only twice. In both cases, the jaunts were school-sponsored field trips. On the whole, zoos are upper-middle class attractions as well as tax shelters for the corporate elite. For most working class people, zoos are a waste of time and money.
ReplyDelete12:12 - you continue to show your ignorance. So, you know the demographics based on two trips to the zoo in your life. That's a true sampling - idiot.
ReplyDeleteNo, I've consulted numerous relatives, neighbors and friends who reside here. With only one exception (an Ivy Leaguer), they've displayed a lack of interest in the zoo and the activities held there. Incidentally, calling people idiots won't persuade them to support the zoo. Please refrain from verbal abuse--it doesn't promote your agenda and it's ammo for anyone who loathes Racine's would-be elite. Thank you very much!
ReplyDeleteThe bottom line is that non-essentials such as the zoo must go. During a depression, there's no justification for saddling the taxpayers with bills for nonsense.
ReplyDeleteI know elderly homeowners who must scrimp on groceries and prescription drugs in order to pay their property taxes. Our senior citizens shouldn't be deprived of the basics because somebody needs extra cash to support lion cubs.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking candidly, if I were endowed with the proper authority, those lions would be sold or humanely terminated. Contrary to the skewed leonine image encountered in children's literature, big cats aren't cute, cuddly critters.
ReplyDeleteGlorifying predators is in the same league with RAM's exhibits exalting cockroaches and the rest of the insect realm. The Waxtrash and their hederaceous tribe of retainers truly deserve the title "Lords of Misrule" for inflicting filthy follies galore on Racine's suffering citizenry. If the Waxies and their Ivy League lackeys want this stomping stuff, they should keep it out at "Whitebread" or send it back east to "Corny-Hell."
ReplyDelete11:01 - What a sad life you lead.
ReplyDeleteNo, I'm just a realist stuck in a town run and ruined by hyper-privileged dreamers.
ReplyDeleteI think the cops should find out what the Waxtrash have been smoking lately. Seriously, the nonsense they inflict on our struggling citizenry suggests that the dollar-sign dynasty dopes have some interesting habits.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete4:19 - I have a suggestion for you - get the hell out of this town. the hyper-privileged dreamers won't miss you. You are just taking up space and provide no value to the city.
ReplyDeleteIf I weren't tied to Racine by a reverse mortgage and the sheer unmarketability of local real estate, I'd shake the dust of this badnews burg from my feet forever. Memo to all hyperprivileged dreamers: when our socio-economic system crashes and burns, you too will wish that you'd never heard of--much less moved to--Racine. Demographically, Racine is a pauper pit crammed with capitalism's victims. When they wise up and rise up against their oppressors, it won't be pretty. (None of the above message is intended as a threat. Rather, it is a historian and cultural anthropologist's report on this sick little company town.)
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your eye candy while you may. Once a common man's government assumes command of this sad land, zoos will be history.
ReplyDelete11:29 - You only have yourself to blame for getting in over your. Too bad loser (or should I say Mr. Angry #2) from the hyper-privileged dreamers. We love this town.
ReplyDelete12:37 you have your man's government now (Socialism) but that's on its way out FAST.
Alas, Obama is not (and never has been) a socialist. The kind of men we want to elect will make Obama look like Mitt Romney or Ronald Reagan. As for zoos, although they aren't intrinsically evil, we don't need to have them. Until we've lifted all our PEOPLE out of poverty, we shouldn't be blowing dough on animals.
ReplyDelete"Positively" speaking, we should be taking care of babies instead of lion cubs. Unfortunately, the corporate oligarchy is addicted to pricey animate eye candy, so Racine is stuck with pampered predators which flourish while minority infants suffer and die. To anyone who's researched the big cats, lion cubs aren't "cute." Within a year or less, they'll be able to rip a man's face off his skull if they feel like it. By and large, lions are meat-eating mayhem and murder perpetrators cursed with bad tempers and worse attitudes. In many parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, they're loathed by the ranchers and farmers whose livestock they attack and devour. Worse yet, along with other big cats, lions injure and, on occasion, kill the youngsters who guard the cattle and goats on which their families depend for survival. If it weren't for non-African eliteniks' aesthetic and ecological obsessions with lions and the so-called conservation legislation promoted by our meddlesome privileged classes, rank-and-file Africans would solve their leonine problem pronto. In the meantime, we shouldn't be doting on a lioness' whelps when children go without the necessities of life.
ReplyDeleteIf there were three rather than two lion cubs, the beasts could derive their names from many Western ranchers' policy vis-a-vis protected predators: Shoot, Shovel and Shut Up.
ReplyDeleteWere lions to become extinct, only rich aesthetes, safari-promoting entrepreneurs and zoo keepers would miss them. Raising lion cubs is in the same league with running a black widow spider breeding facility--at best, an act of madness and, at worst, a crime against humanity.
ReplyDeleteSurvival of the fittest - both animal and human. It is the way of nature. Always has, always will be!
ReplyDeleteVenceremos!
ReplyDeleteDear 5/18/2010 7:43 AM, Here's hoping that mercy will trump "the way of nature" when capitalism's victims settle accounts with their oppressors. In the meantime, please grow a heart. Thank you very much!
ReplyDelete8:26 - I doubt it. Never will happen - now go back into your dark hole
ReplyDeleteAs a Christian, I'll forgive your insult. However, whether God's poor may--or may not--pardon you is another matter. Ad hominem attacks don't solve problems and often exacerbate them to the proverbial max. Please be courteous to others. Many thanks!
ReplyDelete5:48 - I cannot be courteous to knuckleheads.
ReplyDeleteWhether or not others may be "knuckleheads" is a matter of opinion. Besides, prudent men know that "knuckleheads" often have hard fists and plan accordingly.
ReplyDeleteA knucklehead with hard fits - now that's a scary thought.
ReplyDeleteFor your sake, I hope that social justice comes to this country via non-violent movements and methods ONLY. Alas, the men whom you deride and designate as "knuckleheads" may resort to measures which you and your class brothers won't like. Sooner than you care to think, the toilers whom you've exploited and brutalized may retaliate. One thing is certain: once the common man is in charge, lion cubs and other pricey predators will be history.
ReplyDeleteYears ago, my Dad told me that the eliteniks here were insane--and he was right! In addition to doting on lion cubs,they're going ga-ga over a two-toed sloth purchased for the zoo by Troop 5821 of the GSA. (Yep, that's right. The Girl Scouts took two grand of their cookie cash to buy that beast. What ever happened to charity work?)
ReplyDeleteCome to think of it, that sloth would be a perfect mascot for Racine's oligarchy. Like the local error-stock-crazy, the sloth is dumb, lazy and sure to dump its doo-doo on anyone who's under it.
ReplyDeleteAs crazy as our elite's obsession with the lion cubs may be, it seems sane when compared with the attention and assets lavished on that two-toed sloth. If the truth were told, however, a poverty pit like The Dumbbell City has no business blowing dough on exotic, high-maintenance animals of any species. Perhaps the present depression may provide our long-suffering taxpayers with an opportunity to rid themselves of the zoo once and for all.
ReplyDeleteThe zoo is here because some corporate oligarchs like to use it as a status symbol and a tax shelter. If the elitists are so smitten with the zoo, let them assume the financial burden of supporting it instead of dumping it on elderly low-income homeowners. Better yet, a certain kleptoplutocratic tribe of property tax dodgers should move the filthy thing to Wind Point.
ReplyDeleteThe hyperprivileged classes and their obsession with exotic critters are both in the local news again. Apparently, a retired professor--who should have known better--blew $12,500.00 on a zebra for our zoo. Considering the poverty and misery running rampant in The Dumbbell City, the erudite gentleman should have been made to trade his academic mortarboard for a dunce cap.
ReplyDeleteIn view of Racine's minority infant mortality rate, lavishing loot on lion cubs and other big-buck beasties is an obscenity.
ReplyDelete